10 wonderful winter crafts from Creativebug!

Cozy up and craft this holiday season with this curated list of fun ideas from Creativebug. 

Make a wreath, an embroidered photo ornament or homemade candles. All you need is your library card to access these fun craft ideas and many more for the whole family.

Get crafting!

Give Library this holiday season 

Looking for the perfect stocking stuffer? Give the gift of library. 

Library cards are like limitless gift cards, offering access to books, eBooks, video games, streaming music and films, craft tutorials and more! The best part? The cards are free, there's no shipping, you don't have to push through shopping crowds to get one and we've put them in festive packaging for the season. 

Visit your local branch to pick up a card for adults or children.

Branch hours

Teen Drawing Contest 

The results are in from our inaugural Teen Drawing Contest! 

Talented high school-aged artists from across Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii and Bella Coola submitted their best line art and 18 will be featured in our new Vancouver Island Regional Library Colouring Book. 

Congratulations to all of the winners, including grand-prize winner Chloe of Ucluelet, second-place winner Phoebe of Ucluelet and third-place winner, Izzy of Courtenay.

See the winning art!

Community Access Card

Did you know people can get a library card even if they don't have an address? Our Community Access Cards are for people without a home and it unlocks access to all of our in-branch and online resources. 

Know someone who might be interested? They can visit their local branch for more information. Help us spread the word about this service. 

Sea & Cedar is now accepting submissions

Our team at Sea & Cedar Magazine is now accepting submissions for the Summer 2023 issue. 

With the Winter 2023 issue release slated for this January, Sea & Cedar is now collecting poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and artwork for Summer from artists and writers living on Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, Bella Coola and the Gulf Islands. The deadline is March 3, 2023. 

Tell me more!

Creative Writing Series 

We are partnering with Wordstorm Society of the Arts to bring you a free, four-part creative writing series.

It's happening now, on November 27, December 4, 5 and 8.  

If you can't make a webinar, don't worry! We will share recordings until March 2023. 

Click on the link below for details about the webinars, to register and for the link to recordings. 

Register now

Meet Me in the Stacks

If you are travelling this holiday season, take us with you! Listen to Meet Me in the Stacks, our podcast for bookish people. 

This month you can listen to Librarian Nathan read from our Summer 2022 issue of Sea & Cedar magazine. It's like storytime, but for adults. 

Listen to the episode wherever you get podcasts, or tune in on our website by clicking the link below.

Start listening

Hey Book Lover! What's Your Sign? 

Every month we search for the perfect paring for each zodiac sign! This October, it's all about you Sagittarius. We've selected books that are bound to appeal to your adventurous spirit and your love of knowledge. Take a leap and discover something new! 

Biblioscope

Consumer Reports 

Major purchases are major decisions, and it can be difficult to know if you are making the right choice. Worry no more. Consumer Reports is here to help! This eResource takes the stress out of making major purchases in these tough financial times.

Consumer Reports is a non-profit organization that tests and researches consumer products. Since 1936, their advocacy work has led to consumer protections including seatbelts in cars, but they are probably best known for their magazine. Long available in print, it is also available electronically with your library card. It provides articles and ratings for appliances, electronics, automobiles, and many other common household items.

Tell me more

Indigenous Collection

Running Down a Dream: A Memoir, by Candy Palmater, Oct 2022

Description from HarperCollins Publishers: 

Candy described herself as a queer Mi'kmaw lawyer-turned-comic raised by bikers in rural New Brunswick and on the surface, she met with enormous success – on leaving government and the practice of law, she started a career as a stand-up comedian, which led to starring in five successful seasons of her own national TV show, hosting many radio shows and co-guest hosting CTV's The Social, and landing a recurring role on a hot new sitcom in her fifties. But she is the first to tell you she made all kinds of mistakes and experienced all kinds of failure along the way. Running Down a Dream is Candy's story, in her own words, of the highs, the lows, the moments of doubt, the turning points when she listened to her gut and tuned out all the people saying no. It's also a tribute to her family and the love that always bolstered her, despite their own hard times. She shares her stories to inspire us to embrace our failures and to believe in ourselves. 

The world lost Candy in late 2021, and yet she left us with this gift -- a memoir and a message that will inspire us for years to come.

Place a hold now